The monkeys know all.

Tag Archives: crime

Over the weekend, thieves apparently not-too-concerned about booking a place in heaven, stole a relic that contained a piece of gauze that was once soaked with the blood of late Pope John Paul II. Church officials at the isolated San Pietro della Ienca church in the Abruzzo region of Italy reported the burglary. The small church housed the relic that is one of only three in the world.

According to the BBC, the relic was not heavily guarded, as the thieves were able to break through the iron bars and a window protecting the display. The burglars also took a crucifix, but left the church’s collection box untouched.

Be on the look out for pope clones, or perhaps Baphomet, or maybe just deranged billionaires with collections of bloody gauze. Who owns Curt Shilling’s bloody sock?

Today, I saw a mother and her son steal a box of Honey Nut Cheerios Marion, Illinois Sam’s Club. They walked right out with it.

My dad and I were getting ready to check out when I saw the woman and her late junior high, or early high school son walk through one of the many closed but not roped off checkout lines that are endemic at all “discount department stores” these days. They went to the concession stand at the front of the store and bought a bottle of water and stood there until someone went to leave and was being “checked” by the “receipt guard.” When she was occupied, they walked right past to their car.

The cart was empty except for the Cheerios.

I thought about embarrassing the receipt checker by asking her if she checked every receipt, or perhaps asking to talk to the manager, but I didn’t. It would have embarrassed my dad, and probably got the woman fired from a job that doesn’t even pay above poverty. And for what? Participating in security charade that exists nationwide?

Besides being fascinated with Golden Gate Bridge jumpers, I’ve also been fascinated with D.B. Cooper. Hijacked a plane, demanded $200,000 and a parachute, jumped out of the plane into the night, and was never seen again. Oh sure, the FBI said that he was probably dead, but no body was ever found.

I even love how the airplane he commandeered, became part of the Janet flights to Area 52 and Area 51. (Civilians didn’t know that 727s rear airstairs could be deployed in flight, while the CIA was using this feature to deploy operators into Vietnam, and now the plane gets used to ferry works into Area 51 and 52? Interesting. ;) )

So why am I spreading the love for old D.B.? The FBI says it has a lead. The suspect? A man who died 10 years ago. In other words, the FBI says D.B. Cooper might have gotten away with it.

Nice.

Updated: Tue Aug 9 10:17:45 PDT 2011

So the “lead” turned out to be a woman named Maria Cooper contacting the FBI after she suddenly remembered her uncle, Lynn Doyle Cooper, saying at Thanksgiving, “We did it, our money problems are over, we hijacked an airplane.”

Not exactly a hot lead.

Red flag #1: Recovered memory. She was 8 years old at the time, and now suddenly remembers everything.

Red flag #2: Why would someone provide a fake first name, but a real last name?

Everywhere you look, you see professional portraits of the suspect. Where did these images come from? Obviously, they came from the Anders Breivik, but where did the media get them? What was the context that they were taken in?

I found the proximal answer to where the media got them. Most photos of the man on CNN are attributed to Getty Images, but where did Getty get them? I didn’t know, until I read the attribution on the above picture from CNN. “Facebook via Getty Images.” [Original Link]

Wait. “Facebook via Getty Images?” What does that mean? How does Getty get the attribution? Do they own the right to license the images to news agencies or what? Did Facebook just invoke their right to sub-license (See section 2.1 of Facebook’s Terms and Conditions) Anders Behring Breivik’s photos to Getty for (blood) money?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Update: Mon Jul 25 01:28:50 PDT 2011
Let me be clear. It’s not not just Facebook and Getty. There’s this photo that carries a Reuter’s copyright notice no less. This photo appears again, this time with “AP Photo / Twitter” attribution. And again, but with Getty. Either Getty, AP, and Reuters are engaging in widespread unauthorized redistribution of copyrighted materials for commercial gain, someone (meaning Facebook and possibly Twitter) has sublicensed the photos, or the AP, Reuters, and Getty are making a very dubious fair use claim over distributing the photos.Continue reading →